Laptops

An amendment to Kansas court rules now lets journalists use laptops and cell phones to report from the courtroom.

Reporters still need permission from the presiding judge, but the recent amendment to Rule 1001 clarifies that such devices may be used by journalists. Before the amendment was added, there was no mention of laptops or smartphones in the rule, and judges assumed such devices were not permitted, according to court spokesman Ron Keefover.

An Oscar and Emmy nominated filmmaker and journalist said she was detained by the Department of Homeland Security when trying to re-enter the United States last week after traveling in Great Britain, renewing the legal debate over electronic device searches at U.S. borders and their implications for newsgathering.

Journalists will soon be able to use laptop computers and other mobile electronic devices in Massachusetts courtrooms, after the state's highest court adopted a new rule designed to recognize changes in journalism and technology.

The rule also broadly defines "news media" and extends to any individual who gathers and disseminates information, whether in print or electronic format, about matters of public interest and concern to the public.

Federal officials recently detained another journalist and photocopied the contents of his laptop computer and other electronic devices as he returned to the United States from assignment overseas. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of such border searches.

The Supreme Court of Texas on Friday granted a journalist's emergency motion to temporarily suspend a lower court's order to turn over his computer hard drive in a defamation suit filed by the mother of the late Anna Nicole Smith.

Atlanta freelance journalist Art Harris appealed the motion on Sept. 11, the same day it was granted, after it was denied by an intermediate appellate court in Texas.

With the Olympics underway, reports are streaming in from China this week of foreign journalists being detained, having photos deleted from their cameras and in at least one case getting roughed up by police while they work.

Most Americans don't bat an eye at the prospect of a luggage search at the airport. But what if  a customs agent paws through your laptop, seizing and storing your personal information?

"It does happen," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin) Wednesday morning at a Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights Subcommittee hearing on precisely those types of searches. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have discreetly searched travelers' laptops at the country's international airports for years, Feingold said.